Messages

R.I.P. Det Garda Adrian Donohoe. Former cavan u21 and minor player. Deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

[I would play so well with my club,that i couldn't be overlooked for a recall.]

BallyhaiseMan.. Even if Cavan got relegated Val would not be fired. He has started a "project" and will be given a certain amount of time to see how it develops. When that is done Terry will step in.

So

3.If McGeeney called and asked me to come and play with Kildare, after i was dropped from the Cavan Panel id thank him for the offer and politely decline.
I would play so well with my club,that i couldn't be overlooked for a recall.
An All Ireland with another county would be worthless to me.

The bit in bold is irrelevant. No matter how well you/Sean Johnston play the events of the past 4 months have shown that neither party can fully respect each other any more. Without that respect there is nothing. Val wouldn't be calling Sean back, and i don't think Johnston would go back. Not now anyway. I can accept your decision to decline McGeeneys offer. But that does not mean Seanie should be admonished for wanting to play county football. After suffering all the injuries, and undergoing all the operations, he must be thinking that he is entering the last chance saloon. He either realises his potential in the next year or two or when he looks back on his footballing days he will be left with regrets. Many a player has transferred county before. All for different reasons. But ALL wanted to play County football. Some didn't want to play for their native county while Some weren't given the chance to play for their native county.
My point is this. Its not a crime to want to test yourself at county level. Johnston wants to test himself. Should he sit out a year because Val and Terry decided not to ask him back? what if things went well for Cavan. would they ask him back then?

Too much of his career has been spent being injured, or playing through injury. Why should he now waste his injury free years. Of course Johnston would rather be playing for cavan. But that is not an option anymore.

And so what if he is one of the dropped players? Isnt he entitled to his views as much as me or you?

Agreed. But one more time for guys up the back. Nope.

You are one of those lads or Richie J with a different name!

Nope. Wrong again Breffni Yank. I have no idea who Richie J is. But i have my contacts.

And Cavan boy, if you are not one of the dropped players I will eat my hat.

Eat it. 

So i've been reading this board for years, but have never posted.

Well here's my two cents on this scenario....

Some of the posters here who are taking about going back to the club and playing well and getting called back into the panel are a little naive.

Not If Sean Johnston scored 3 -15 a game all year long would Val be calling him back into the panel. That is the reality of the situation. So when Anglocelt says Sean has effectively ruled himself off the panel he's wrong. Sean was effectively ruled off the panel by Val & Terry for this year and FOR FUTURE YEARS. Its Just that with his appeal on his transfer getting quashed and reporters getting wind of the story (Croke park leaks like the titanic), Sean got asked a few questions and i guess he decided that nows the time to let everybody know that he's not on the panel, nor will be on the panel. (and thats how it works, a reporter rings you up when you're driving your car, or visiting your sick grandad, or down the supermarket, or out on the pitch training some young lads, and asks you question after question after question, then uses about a third of what you say to form a story.)

So after yesterdays interview guys can stop going on about "If and when" he gets called back in the spring. Not going to happen. Was NEVER going to happen. He could be playing like an all star in the morning but its going against what Val and Terry are trying to do. They're entitled to their opinions. they can tell him he's not going to play for cavan again, thats their pejorative. I guess Sean has done with that interview for Val and Terry what they didn't have the balls to do themselves.. Remember the Declan woods story about "how could anyone be dropped from the panel when there is no panel..." complete propaganda from the county management team. Lets say nothing and Johnston will make the first move. He fell for the trick in my opinion.

Now, he can either decide at 27 years of age, and after having surgery on his groin, ankle, and elbow in the last 4 years, and after finally shaking off those injuries, that he is no longer up to intercounty football, he can accept Val and terrys decision to end his intercounty career.
And thats what Val is doing, ending his Intercounty career. When Val goes, Terry will look for the reigns and probably take over, and he is as complicit in all of this, anyone thinking that there is any great difference in the management structure now that terry is a selector and not co-manager is mistaken, its still the same starsky and hutch one two of last year.

If McGeeney called any of you in the morning and asked would you join his panel, after Val telling you to F*** **F what would you do?

I say fair play to Johnston. Cavan told him playing Intercounty football wasn't an option anymore, and McGeeney said, well actually Sean, it is!!! (Mcgeeney being a man who transferred club himself realises life goes on afterwards. Will he be remembered forever as the man who captained Armagh to an All Ireland, or the man who left Mullaghbawn after winning an ulster club title.)

Seans problem is he probably doesn't help himself from a PR perspective. The interview in the independent makes him seem like he doesn't care about Cavan football. anyone who knows sean, and i'm sure there are people reading this board who do, know that this is simply not true. If Val and Terry hadn't dropped him then he'd be in there training with the rest of the cavan panel, training as hard as the rest of them. For god sake, he seems to wind some guys up on here that he gets vilified for not caring, for kissing his jersey after a point, for not singing the national anthem with gusto. He just annoys some guys no matter what. whatever, life is too short.

Val had a crap set up last year. u21s that joined the panel couldn't wait to get the hell away from it. the way some people go on they seem to make out like this was all Seans fault! Longford were up by 14 points in the championship at one stage. NOT CORK, or KERRY, or DUBLIN, but LONGFORD. Lets blame the corner forward surrounded by 10 defenders for that one too.
Lets look at the Johnston was a negative influence argument. I actually believe he probably was. I believe he was pissed off like hell! And i believe seannie is not the type of character who can hide his displeasure. If you were putting in the hours these guys were putting in, and had been putting in for the last number of years, and seeing standards dropping all the time from consecutive Management teams i'd say a fair few of you would feel a little cantankerous too.
Val knew he had messed up so he's gone around trying to fix the situation this year. He seems to have a good set up. Morrisson should be useful! The S&C boys are the same guys behind dublin hurlers. However Val had a problem, A big problem, and one of his own making. Unless your senior players buy into what you're doing you're wasting your time. Val made his impression last year on a group of lads... knew they had judged him and decided to get rid of them. Its classic 101 management. Like everything Val knows, he probably read it in a book!

(Side Note: He'd want to have a good read of Kevin Cassidys autobiography because jim McGuinness hasn't wrote a book!)   

What pisses me off is that some people write here about how lads don't work hard etc etc so thats why they got the boot, "I'd rather we had a group of lads committed to the jersey willing to work hard for each other" As if Dermot Sheridan, Martin Cahill, Eoin McGuigan, Alan Clarke, Micheal Lyng & Sean Johnston didn't work hard, all gone since March of last year!!!! Most of you probably know one if not two of these guys.

Are they ALL Primadonnas?


Maybe Cavan will do something this year. Wouldn't it be great if they did. At the end of the day we're all Cavan people here on this board.

Maybe Val has called it correctly, maybe he has done the right thing. Time will tell.

But people jumping to conclusions, saying Johnston says he only got a 10 second phone call, he hasn't said the reason why he was dropped, it mustn't reflect well on him....

Let me tell you this, the reason these guys were dropped doesn't reflect well on management. Thats why you have the "we're going with something new" line being pushed, because its easier than explaining the mistakes they made last year.
Even is Johnston didn't play that well last year, No one played better!
Lyng WAS told he was too old by management. Michael Brennan who is 33 years of age is on the panel. Micheal Lyng is still 26.

If you trained hard for cavan when selected onto the panel. If you made sacrifices in your personal/professional and academic lives to play for Cavan. And if you get dumped with a 10 second phone call after the best part of a decade, then i think you're entitled to consider your options without being judged by the wider public.

But hey... thats just me. What would i know!